“A failure to plan is a plan for failure.”

Everyone knows the famous biblical story: The young shepherd David battles the fearsome warrior named Goliath, using his wits and cunning to defeat a much bigger, stronger opponent.

To paraphrase the famous author Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Every other content strategy is taken.”

Napoleon. Rommel. Grant. These men are some of the most successful generals in history, and not always because they had the best equipment or largest quantity of soldiers.

A frustrated homeowner was trying to fix a leaky pipe. He had spent days working on the pipe himself, searched tutorials online, and even asked friends and family to take a look. Nothing worked.

We’ve recently seen “bubbles,” or sharp rises in value followed by drastic depreciation, in several popular industries. In the digital marketing world, we’re seeing another example of this economic phenomenon: The inbound services bubble. And whether you realize it or not, we’re already in the midst of the crash: If you’re not already looking for ways to mitigate its impact, you are running out of time.

“My biggest client which represents 60% my income doesn’t need this [strategy]. I need to focus on delivering for them.”

This is the most common reply I get when I ask marketing agencies or consultants if they are making progress doing more strategy and coaching work with clients. It scares me every time.